Archive for the ‘knee injury’ Category

I feel that there is a ton of value in sharing stories about coping with injury. I’m ashamed to say that this section of my site has not taken off like I had hoped, but nonetheless, everyone goes through injuries during a long career in sports, and it’s good to know how things feel from someone who has lived it before.

One of my closest friends, fellow ballplayer and trainer, and occasion contributor to this site, Andrew Sacks, just underwent PCL surgery on his right knee. He is chronicling his recovery, which I think is a great idea – one that I wish I had done myself with my elbow. Unfortunately, Andrew has an even longer road than most, as his left knee needs at least one ligament replaced as well, so two or three months into rehab on his right, he is going to be on the surgeon’s table again to get his left knee repaired. For a lifetime athlete, he is in for a long battle with inactivity and rehab.

Apparently Andrew bruises easier than grandma.

So, check out his blog entitled Life After Knee Surgery. Andrew writes well, and if you’ve ever laughed at one of my random thoughts or jokes, then you’ll enjoy his brand of humor as well (we basically share that brand). And if you further find yourself wondering about the difficulties of going to the bathroom while in a straight-legged knee brace, look no further.

In the fall of 2007 I started having hamstring problems, which was unusual for me. As a catcher, it was my priority to take care of my body, and I was no stranger to the weight room. My legs were strong and flexible, but after a collision with a first basemen I jammed my patella into the ground, and this started what I believe to be a long chain of events ending in a ruptured PCL. The diagnosis the day after the collision was a baker’s cyst, which is basically a fluid filled sac caused by trauma. It was behind my left knee about the size of a tennis ball, and after ice and treatment it was about the size of a grape. I had limited range of motion and general pain for a few weeks, and my first MRI was inconclusive. The team doctors at UMBC, after doing several tests, decided my knee was functional and I would be fine to move on. The problems seemed to fade away and I only noticed pain after extreme workouts or conditioning. My hamstring never felt the same, I had always attributed it to the baker’s cyst and thought it would get stronger as it went on. When I squatted my hamstring would feel tired, but it was nothing I thought to be serious, so I kept lifting and tried to get my leg in the shape it had been. After the spring season it wasn’t much of anything, and I started my summer lifting program and played in my summer league without pain, so I thought everything was cleared up. Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Sacks is the site’s newest content writer.

To me, nothing is worse than being injured. For as long as you are too hurt to play, you are on the outside looking in as your team continues on without you. You have to sit out of practices and games while you wait to heal up, which could take weeks or even months. During my senior year of high school I broke my thumb in our homecoming football game and had to sit out the last game of the season (and my career), which was against our conference rivals to determine who would take home the championship that year. I watched helplessly from the sideline while my teammates played and won the championship game and I celebrated with them afterwards, but the win was completely unsatisfying for me and the experience left a bitter taste in my mouth. After that experience of watching my team win a championship without me, I decided that no future injury was ever going to keep me from playing again.

Over the course of my athletic career I have suffered several injuries including a partial tear of my Tommy John ligament, the broken thumb, and various sprains and strains. All of these were relatively minor injuries and none required surgery, so I usually played through them. As a result, I have become accustomed to playing with some degree of pain and discomfort. However, when I tore my ACL in December of 2007 I thought for sure I was going to miss my entire junior season of baseball.

I have always loved sports and I rarely turn down an opportunity to compete, so when a few of my teammates asked me to join their intramural basketball team at school I agreed to play. In our second-to-last game of the year, I planted awkwardly while trying to guard an opponent and twisted my left knee. I felt a strange crunching sensation inside my knee, followed by intense pain and a sense of “looseness” within the joint. I immediately dropped to the ground and nearly blacked out from the pain. I managed to hobble off the court and later drive myself home, but I couldn’t sleep due to the fact that my knee hurt no matter what position it was in. The next day my knee had swelled and I was unable to bend it enough to even get up and down the stairs.  A few days later I went to see our trainer, and he told me I had torn my Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Of all the possible things I thought I had done to my knee, a torn ACL had never occurred to me, and I was immediately filled with dread that I would have to get surgery and sit out the season. Read the rest of this entry »